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by Jim L. Ellingson

FYI MAY 27, 2009, 6:37 AM A Two-Wheeler Tour of Wine Country Matt Gross for The New York Times Nora Mounce handles the tasting counter at Syncline, a decade-old winery in the Columbia River Gorge. OH, it.s not too hilly, said the woman at Syncline Wine Cellars when I called for directions from the Lewis and Clark Highway, somewhere southeast of Bingen, Wash. Just bike east to the Klickitat River, she said, turn left, and you.ll be there in no time. Matt Gross for The New York Times The Columbia River. I was skeptical. To my right was the Columbia River, wide and as steely as the clouds above. To my left, a sheer rock face, behind which rose yet more hills . the hills that led to my ultimate goal, three promising wineries in the Columbia River Gorge. Back in Oregon, the wines, particularly down in the Willamette Valley but also along the Columbia, were well-known, easier to reach and, thanks to a decade-plus of buzz, not exactly affordable. But here in Washington, I.d been told at numerous wine shops, were great undiscovered values, and so I set out to visit some of the wineries the frugal way . by bicycle. This plan quickly hit a few snags. The rented bike from Clever Cycles (908 Southeast Hawthorne Boulevard, Portland, Ore.; 503-334-1560; www.clevercycles.com; $100 a week with panniers) was a stately three-speed, perfect for cities but underpowered for hills. Then, after I had picked as my base the town of Hood River, Ore., I discovered that bicycles were banned from the bridge over the Columbia. Oops! For my purposes, I learned, it would have been better to rent from Discover Cycles (116 Oak Street, Hood River; 541-386-4820; $30 a day) and stay in Washington at the Inn of the White Salmon (172 West Jewett Boulevard; White Salmon; 509-493-2335; www.innofthewhitesalmon.com) where bunks are $25, and private rooms start at $90 April through October, at $60 the rest of the year. Luckily, the local people were friendly. I waited less than a minute at the bridge entrance before a pickup pulled over to offer a lift across the water. From there, it was a 14-mile bike ride along the Lewis and Clark in chilly intermittent rain, with trucks whizzing past. I didn.t mind. At times, I stopped just to admire the interplay of cliffs, water, grass and trees, and, at a rest stop, to learn the landscape.s geological origins. Fifteen million years ago, a placard explained, volcanoes in eastern Washington and Oregon flooded the valley with molten andesite and basalt. Thirteen million years later, the Cascades erupted through those rock layers. Finally, as the last ice age wound down, roughly 15,000 years ago, an enormous lake in Montana breached its glacial dam, and the so-called Missoula Floods drenched the Columbia basin, reshaping the land once again. What this created in the Columbia River Gorge was a liminal zone where thick clouds from the coast are halted, the dry heat of the high desert is cooled, and earth and stone of wildly different ages and makeups are blended . a unique terroir for making wine. Matt Gross for The New York Times A view of Lyle White Salmon Road. It.s also a terroir to challenge the thighs of amateur cyclists. The last mile to the wineries was unrelentingly steep, and I walked until at last the road leveled out into gently rolling farmland. There, at last, was my first winery, Cor Cellars (151 Lyle White Salmon Road, Lyle; 509-365-2744; www.corcellars.com) opened in 2003, a year before the gorge was designated an American Viticultural Area by the Treasury Department. The grounds were spare, unused barrels stood in the gravel driveway, and the tasting room was a narrow cement-floored space warmed by a cat named Catastrophe and a signed Jasper Johns poster. As at all the wineries I visited that Sunday, there were almost no vines . just two small half-acre plots. Though grapes are grown in the gorge, the wineries I visited were first trying to perfect their products by using local and slightly farther-flung fruit before they invested in their own vineyards. All the wineries charged $3 to $5 to taste their wares (the fee is waived if you make a purchase). At Cor, the style seemed at first very American, but was really very European. The 2007 Momentum, for example, was a four-grape red blend from Horse Heaven Hills, a viticultural area about 80 miles east, with a big fruity nose (the kind of pandering Napa Valley approach I resent) but a remarkably restrained body, more Bordeaux than California. In fact, this was the bottle I stashed in my pannier ($19.26 with tax). Matt Gross for The New York Times The tasting room at Cor Cellars. The cat is named Catastrophe. FROM Cor, I half-biked, half-walked two more miles uphill to Domaine Pouillon (170 Lyle Snowden Road, Lyle; 509-365-2795; www.domainepouillon.com) where the owner, Alexis Pouillon, a soil scientist who learned winemaking in Châauneuf, France, watched with disbelief as I rode in. I was, he said, the first cyclist to visit, so he knocked $4 off the $19 bottle I fell in love with, a 2007 roussanne-viognier, which had an addictive honey note. Then he and his dog, T-Bone, gave me a tour of the property, pointing out slopes where tiny wildflowers grew, a skinny picturesque waterfall next to a black-rock cliff, and the thin soil . all distinctive features of his little plot of terroir. .But,. he later told me by phone, .it.s the culture that man brings to it that makes the terroir.. I was up about as high as I could go, so I coasted three speedy miles down to Syncline (111 Balch Road, Lyle; 509-365-4361; www.synclinewine.com) Founded in 1999 and named for a series of 300-foot cliffs on the Columbia, it.s one of the most established wineries in this region, with a warehouse made from recycled computer packaging and an actual employee (not the owners!) tending the tasting counter. Nora Mounce was her name, and the glasses she poured were very sophisticated: a subtly spicy syrah, a late-harvest viognier dessert wine that had me swooning. My favorite was the well-balanced 2007 pinot noir, whose underlying funk captivated me. At $28, it was also a sign that nothing stays undiscovered . or affordable . for long. -- ------------------------------ * Dr. James Ellingson, jellings(a)me.umn.edu * * University of Minnesota, mobile : 651/645-0753 * * Great Lakes Brewing News, 1569 Laurel Ave., St. Paul, MN 55104 *

16 years, 6 months

[wine] Rose's (LAT) and Solo Vino Tasting

by Jim L. Ellingson

FYI from Chuck et al: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ * 1st Annual Rosé Tent Tasting at W.A. Frost Only about 25 spots remaining for the tasting. Cost for this event is $20 and you can RSVP by contacting Solo Vino at 651-602-9515. Solo Vino - +http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1102591487803&s=241&e=001iiftf2ARBs7mfqukIaG5Md6pMIZGPf-blkwU7Y3of8W5dUgLdy_iNSi +T3my95DIx7UJOKg37nbYoZi8M5jfcSWdN0ViLEnM2Ahkh-qm27VQ7tLz-EFeQ1Q== ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Solo Vino517 Selby AvenueSaint Paul, Minnesota 55102 651-602-9515 info(a)solovinowines.com http://www.solovinowines.com An article from LA Times http://www.latimes.com/features/food/la-fo-rose27-2009may27,0,2505289.story >From the Los Angeles Times WINES Roséines bloom in many shades By Patrick Comiskey May 27, 2009 More than any other wine category, rosés a mood. There is simply nothing better on a warm afternoon, a salve for sun-drenched, heat-driven thirst. It is more often gulped than sipped, never contemplated, rarely complicated. But there is much to say about a bottle of roséeyond "it's empty." It's made, after all, in a broad array of styles from nearly every red grape known to man, in nearly every wine region on Earth. So before your next gulp, read on; a wine with so many shades deserves a closer inspection. To begin, "rose" is just one of the colors it comes in. To it let's add ruby, copper, salmon, amber, almandine, maraschino, blood orange, madras and sunset and grapefruit pink, fuchsia, sepia, saffron, cayenne, pale rust and more. The wine is a painter's palette for the color red -- in fact, strictly speaking, many are a truer red than any red wines (which tend, of course, to be more purple). You'd think these colors would provide clues to its taste -- the darker the hue the deeper the wine, for example. Sometimes, that's true. But dark wines can also be sweeter, softened by a secondary fermentation. In fact, the pale ones often can deceive. The coppery roséof Bandol belie the rigor of the grape variety Mourvedre, which girds these wines with well-built, earthy tannins. Ditto the even paler roséof the Loire, which disguise in their prettiness the pleasingly bitter grip of Cabernet Franc. Roséets its color from contact with the skins of red grapes -- and that color varies depending on the grape, and on how long the contact. But there are other factors, like how it's made. Sometimes the wine is a saigné wherein the juice is "bled" off a larger tank of red wine (usually with the side intention of concentrating the latter). Sometimes, like a watercolor pigment, a rosés the sum total of white and red juice. Perhaps the best, however, are destined for rosérom the get-go, from vines grown toward that aim, with grapes allowed to macerate for a few hours or a day for color, pressed off, transformed by fermentation into the perfect sunny-day beverage. Roséor beginners If you're new to roséit's best to start on the cheap, and many quality bottles are, most originating in southern France or Spain. For sheer frivolity I like the wines of the Languedoc, made usually with some combination of Grenache, Cinsault and Carignane, such as the rosérom Domaine L'Hortus. Or you might try a youthful rosado from the Rioja; usually these are a deep color red and very inexpensive; one of my favorites comes from Faustino, but the ubiquitous Marques de Caceres is an annual steal at $9. Domestic bottlings are a great option too, made in a ripe style for easy drinking. New plantings of Iberian and Rhone varieties have made Mediterranean-inspired wines increasingly common, like the blend from Verdad, Rioja-style pink with lots of up-front strawberry fruit and lifted berry flavors. Or consider the delicate roséf Syrah from Ojai Vineyard, bright juicy cherry in a pale cast. Solo Rosa puts its sentiments right there in its name (only rosé- get it?) and makes toothsome pinks from the Russian River Valley. Roséor experts No one takes rosémore seriously than France; nearly every major wine region has a prominent version, including Bordeaux and even Burgundy. Odder still are Cabernet Franc roséfrom the Loire, found mostly in the department of Anjou. These are strictly food wines, with a pleasing but pronounced bitterness, and a grabbing, chalky minerality ideal with something like roast chicken. All that said, the South of France, in the regions that hug the Mediterranean and the Côd'Azur, is where roséexcel. The most serious of all, produced by the most studious of roséroducers, would have to come from Tavel, in the southern Rhone. The entire production of the AOC is of the pink variety. The best are, in a word, intense: intensely colored, intensely flavored, and confer a grippy mineral tang to deep strawberry flavors. The other serious Mediterranean roséomes from Provence, in particular the province of Bandol. The region's most famous, Domaine Tempier, produces astonishingly complex, well-built roséof Mourvedre and Grenache, aged in puncheons, possessing unusual depth for a pink wine. The more ubiquitous Cô de Provence wines are less expensive, and often as good, like the old-vine bottling from Domaine Saint Andre de Figuiere, from less-storied vineyard sites. Roséor weirdos Then there are those roséso pure in intent, so oddly made, from such exotic places, that they're worth graduating to. Some of these are traditional, some are merely willful; all are unexpected, some downright weird. To start with, two opposite extremes from Spain: From the Basque region comes a slightly fizzy, wonderfully bracing rosado called Txakoli, by the producer Gurrutxaga. It's made from an indigenous grape, Hondarriba Belza, which brings an amaro-like bitterness to the finish. And from Rioja, consider the wonderful late-release older wines from Lopez de Heredia -- I found a 1998 Viñondonia Rosado that is a wonder of complexity and strangeness, with aromas of narcissus flowers and freshly tilled soil -- not for everyone, but fascinating. Italy isn't known for its rosébut Montepulciano, in Abruzzo, has an established DOC for its Cerasuolo, a powerful rosato with a deep red cherry color, firmly packed flavors, and an almondy aftertaste. There certainly isn't much Greek rosén the market, but I found a roséf Agiorgitiko from Gaia with the very helpful name of "14-18h" -- the number of hours required for the juice to remain on skins and achieve its vivid color and strident flavors. I wouldn't have dreamed that I'd find a German rosébut the Rheingau producer August Kesseler makes one from Pinot Noir (or as they say there, Späurgunder) with a Kabinett level of sweetness and fierce, almost Riesling-like minerality. Meanwhile, probably the oddest rosé've tried from the U.S. comes from Peter Cargasacchi in the Santa Rita Hills, for his Point Concepcion label, called Celestina. It is a Pinot Grigio, but for any Grigio lover, the look of this wine will be an affront: It is a fiery blood orange, the color of a smoky sunset. Pinot Grigio, after all, is a white wine made from a red grape (not exactly red, but more coppery gray, which is where it gets its name). Instead of avoiding color, Cargasacchi macerates the fruit to extract it, not unlike the wines of its cousin, Pinot Noir. This wine has a richness that no Pinot Grigio could ever aspire to, and a leesy, umami-like sweetness that leavens its full-bore flavors of cherries spiced with orange peel. It leaves you with plenty to ponder in a wine that doesn't usually register a second thought. food(a)latimes.com and a few from the SFGC's top 100 wines for 2008: Roséazing upon an increasingly crowded field of pink wines, and reviewing notes of the many we tasted, a perhaps obvious conclusion was reached: roséeems at its most refreshing when it's made as its own wine, not as the leftovers from red-wine winemaking. These all were outstanding; just remember to enjoy them before next summer rolls around. 2007 Clos du Bois Sonoma County rosé$12) A roséf impressive depth from a very familiar name. A mix of 70 percent Syrah and 30 Merlot yields bright notes of lime and raspberry, with clean, lean lines and a bit of intriguing grip to the finish. 2007 Heitz Wine Cellars Napa Valley Grignolino rosé$18) This storied Napa winery is typically more focused on Cabernet, but bright pink Grignolino (a native Piedmontese grape) has long been one of its straightforward pleasures. It was in fine form this year - lean, nuanced and lively, with freesia, cranberry, nectarine skin and a tart, refreshing finish. 2007 Zepaltas Wines California rosé$17) Not to distract from his red wines, but emerging Pinot talent Ryan Zepaltas showcases beautiful Pinot fruit in a different form. A blend of his various red-wine lots, it's full of engaging strawberry and peach, and exactly what Pinot roséhould be: high-toned, vivacious and complex. 2007 Toad Hollow Eye of the Toad Sonoma County Dry Pinot Noir rosé$10) In a day when Pinot of any sort fetches top dollar (see Page 16), how amazing that this Healdsburg label not only opts to make some into roséut keeps the price at a sawbuck. It caught our attention not once but twice this year, first in a lineup of 140-plus pink wines, then again during a bargain hunt. Sweet herbs and cherry-candy aromas give way to bright fruit and a slightly loamy nuance. Subtle and very pretty. . Jon Bonnék -- ------------------------------ * Dr. James Ellingson, jellings(a)me.umn.edu * * University of Minnesota, mobile : 651/645-0753 * * Great Lakes Brewing News, 1569 Laurel Ave., St. Paul, MN 55104 *

16 years, 6 months

[wine] Valpolicella

by Jim L. Ellingson

On Topic... May 27, 2009 WINES OF THE TIMES An Italian Mystery, Explained By ERIC ASIMOV THE world is full of mystifying wines, but few are as familiar yet as little-known as Valpolicella. Where does Valpolicella come from? Well, that we can answer: the Veneto region of northeastern Italy. And we know it is red. What grapes are used? How is it made? Is it any good? For those questions, the answers I.m afraid are pretty murky. Back when I was a child . and despite what people tell me, I am no longer young . Valpolicella meant the cartoon Italian accent of countless radio commercials for a mass-produced wine that achieved popularity through the undeniable appeal of its mellifluous name. The generations who followed, growing up in the .80s or .90s, knew Valpolicella mostly through hearing it disparaged as a thin, insipid wine. Fact is, it was insipid most of the time. Commercial producers had taken the easy way, abandoning difficult-to-farm hillsides for vineyards on the flats, where high yields of dilute grapes were easy. Meanwhile, as people began to prefer bigger, richer red wines like Valpolicella.s brawnier sibling, Amarone, producers began to reserve their best grapes and vineyards for more profitable Amarone production. Still, the winemaking renaissance that has occurred throughout Italy, including Soave, the Veneto.s white-wine counterpart to Valpolicella, has also come to Valpolicella. Grapes from the original Valpolicella zone are designated Valpolicella Classico, while those that have a higher level of alcohol and that receive an additional year of aging are designated Superiore. With new seriousness of purpose, many producers have rededicated themselves to Valpolicella. It has not replaced Amarone at the top of most winemakers. production charts, not even close. But it is clear today that many Valpolicellas are delicious and wonderful values, though all over the map stylistically, as the wine panel found in a recent tasting of 25 bottles. For the tasting Florence Fabricant and I were joined by Charles Scicolone, the consulting wine director for Enoteca on Court and Marco Polo restaurant, in Brooklyn, and Gabrio Tosti di Valminuta, proprietor of De-Vino, a largely Italian wine shop on the Lower East Side. Let.s start with the murkiness. Valpolicella is a blended wine. The corvina grape must make up to 40 to 70 percent of the mix, with rondinella 20 to 40 percent and molinara 5 to 25 percent. Up to 15 percent of the blend can include barbera, sangiovese, negrara or rossignola, while up to 5 percent can come from other red grapes. Got that? Clearly winemakers have a lot of room for variation, but that.s only the beginning. As consumer tastes changed, Valpolicella producers began to use techniques of concentrating and darkening the wines. Some added semi-dried grapes that might have been used for Amarone. Others took Valpolicella and refermented it with the skins and sediment of the semi-dried grapes used for Amarone. The results were bigger, richer wines, somewhere between classic Valpolicellas and Amarones. Many producers call these wines ripasso, or ripassa, which means .passed through again.. They can be quite good. But for our tasting I wanted Valpolicellas made in the more conventional way, partly because I love the texture and delicacy of a well-made Valpolicella. We had only one problem. Producers are under no obligation to label their wines ripasso, or to indicate what methods they.ve used to make the wines. Without a lot of research, it is hard to know what you.re getting. And even then, some producers vary their methods from year to year, depending on the vintage. Confusing? .That.s Italy!. Gabrio chortled. Fair enough. The best traditional Valpolicellas are Italy, too, delicate in texture, with aromas and flavors of cherries, flowers and earth and a lively acidity that practically demands food with the wine. Our No. 1 bottle, the 2007 Classico from Vaona, virtually pulsed with bright, vibrant cherry flavors and floral aromas. It typified what I was looking for in a classically styled Valpolicella, with a structure that comes from acidity rather than oak and a delicacy that, with the wine lightly chilled, might go well with seafood. Best of all, it was just $16. Still, the Vaona wasn.t our best value. Our No. 2 bottle, the 2006 Tommasi Valpolicella Classico Superiore from the Rafaèvineyard, which had pronounced floral aromas floating above the cherry flavors, was our best value at just $12. But it could just as easily been our No. 3 bottle, the 2006 Zenato Classico Superiore at $12, or the 2007 Bolla at just $9. Incidentally, the Bolla was one of those mass-produced Valpolicellas with the radio commercials decades ago. Nonetheless, it.s a highly satisfying cheap bottle . no complaints. The myriad bottles we tried did not vary much by flavor. The Valpolicellas consistently offer floral aromas and flavors of tart cherry and occasionally chocolate, turning refreshingly bitter as you swallow. Some are a bit herbal, and others spicy. But the more noticeable differences in the wines were their texture and density as well as their focus . that is, in the better wines the flavors are more precise and sharply defined. For experiment.s sake, our tasting coordinator, Bernard Kirsch, included the two best-known and most venerated names in Valpolicella, Quintarelli and Dal Forno. I.ve had the Quintarelli before. It.s a wine unlike any other Valpolicella, with lightness, complexity and intensity, and it can age for years. Unfortunately, our bottle, a 1998 that Bernie found for $90, was hopelessly oxidized. The Dal Forno, a 2002 that cost $97, had a different problem. It was overwhelmed . I might say strangled . by the aroma and flavor of the new oak barrels used to age the wine. I would not hesitate to invest in a Quintarelli for a special occasion. I.ve had plenty of very good ripasso-style Valpolicellas . producers like Marion, Allegrini.s Palazzo della Torre and Masi Campofiorin come to mind. Perhaps we even had some lurking in our tasting. But more and more I.ve been looking for the real, unaugmented thing. Any of our top 10 wines would make me happy, and for the most part you can.t beat the prices. jle: regretably, the new format for the wines tasted sux... The New York Times | Dining | February 18, 2009 Tasting Report: Many Valpolicellas are delicious and wonderful values, though all over the map stylistically, as the wine panel found in a recent tasting of 25 bottles. 1. Vaona 2. Tommasi **Best Value** 3. Zenato 4. Bolla 5. Stefano Accordini 6. Allegrini 7. Valentina Cubi 8. Caâ la Bionda 9. Masi 10. Brigaldara For more information about these wines and to read the whole article, go to: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/27/dining/reviews/27wine.html May 27, 2009 PAIRINGS Arctic Char With Prosciutto and Sage By FLORENCE FABRICANT Charles Scicolone, a wine consultant who was on our tasting panel, kept whetting our appetites by suggesting .fish from Lago di Garda. with the brighter, less assuming Valpolicellas. I had already been thinking of fish with the wines but instead of fish from Lake Garda, in the Veneto region of Italy, my idea was Arctic char in a preparation loosely inspired by saltimbocca, using prosciutto and sage. The meatiness of the fish, enhanced by the cured ham . and given herbal notes from the sage and acidity from onions splashed with vinegar . plays in tune with the wines we tasted. The lighter, fairly classic Valpolicellas would be best, but even the earthier, more assertive examples make good partners. The recipe will work with a whole fish that has been boned and butterflied, or two fillets. FLORENCE FABRICANT -- ------------------------------ * Dr. James Ellingson, jellings(a)me.umn.edu * * University of Minnesota, mobile : 651/645-0753 * * Great Lakes Brewing News, 1569 Laurel Ave., St. Paul, MN 55104 *

16 years, 6 months

[wine] Off Topic Liberated from what...

by Jim L. Ellingson

FYI/FYE May 26, 2009 OP-ED COLUMNIST Liberated and Unhappy By ROSS DOUTHAT American women are wealthier, healthier and better educated than they were 30 years ago. They.re more likely to work outside the home, and more likely to earn salaries comparable to men.s when they do. They can leave abusive marriages and sue sexist employers. They enjoy unprecedented control over their own fertility. On some fronts . graduation rates, life expectancy and even job security . men look increasingly like the second sex. But all the achievements of the feminist era may have delivered women to greater unhappiness. In the 1960s, when Betty Friedan diagnosed her fellow wives and daughters as the victims of .the problem with no name,. American women reported themselves happier, on average, than did men. Today, that gender gap has reversed. Male happiness has inched up, and female happiness has dropped. In postfeminist America, men are happier than women. This is .The Paradox of Declining Female Happiness,. the subject of a provocative paper from the economists Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers. The paper is fascinating not only because of what it shows, but because the authors deliberately avoid floating an easy explanation for their data. The decline of the two-parent family, for instance, is almost certainly depressing life satisfaction for the women stuck raising kids alone. But this can.t be the only explanation, since the trend toward greater female discontent cuts across lines of class and race. A working-class Hispanic woman is far more likely to be a single mother than her white and wealthy counterpart, yet the male-female happiness gap holds in East Hampton and East L.A. alike. Again, maybe the happiness numbers are being tipped downward by a mounting female workload . the famous .second shift,. in which women continue to do the lion.s share of household chores even as they.re handed more and more workplace responsibility. It.s certainly possible . but as Wolfers and Stevenson point out, recent surveys actually show similar workload patterns for men and women over all. Or perhaps the problem is political . maybe women prefer egalitarian, low-risk societies, and the cowboy capitalism of the Reagan era had an anxiety-inducing effect on the American female. But even in the warm, nurturing, egalitarian European Union, female happiness has fallen relative to men.s across the last three decades. All this ambiguity lends itself to broad-brush readings. A strict feminist and a stringent gender-role traditionalist alike will probably find vindication of their premises between the lines of Wolfers and Stevenson.s careful prose. The feminist will see evidence of a revolution interrupted, in which rising expectations are bumping against glass ceilings, breeding entirely justified resentments. The traditionalist will see evidence of a revolution gone awry, in which women have been pressured into lifestyles that run counter to their biological imperatives, and men have been liberated to embrace a piggish irresponsibility. There.s evidence to fit each of these narratives. But there.s also room for both. Feminists and traditionalists should be able to agree, for instance, that the structures of American society don.t make enough allowances for the particular challenges of motherhood. We can squabble forever about the choices that mothers ought to make, but the difficult work-parenthood juggle is here to stay. (Just ask Sarah and Todd Palin.) And there are all kinds of ways . from a more family-friendly tax code to a more accommodating educational system . that public policy can make that juggle easier. Conservatives and liberals won.t agree on the means, but they ought to agree on the end: a nation where it.s easier to balance work and child-rearing, however you think that balance should be struck. They should also be able to agree that the steady advance of single motherhood threatens the interests and happiness of women. Here the public-policy options are limited; some kind of social stigma is a necessity. But a new-model stigma shouldn.t (and couldn.t) look like the old sexism. There.s no necessary reason why feminists and cultural conservatives can.t join forces . in the same way that they made common cause during the pornography wars of the 1980s . behind a social revolution that ostracizes serial baby-daddies and trophy-wife collectors as thoroughly as the .fallen women. of a more patriarchal age. No reason, of course, save the fact that contemporary America doesn.t seem willing to accept sexual stigma, period. We simply don.t have the stomach for permanently ostracizing the sexually irresponsible . be they a pregnant starlet, a thrice-divorced tycoon, or even a prostitute-hiring politician. In this sense, ours is a kinder, gentler, more forgiving country than it was 40 years ago. But for half the public, it.s an unhappier country as well. -- ------------------------------ * Dr. James Ellingson, jellings(a)me.umn.edu * * University of Minnesota, mobile : 651/645-0753 * * Great Lakes Brewing News, 1569 Laurel Ave., St. Paul, MN 55104 *

16 years, 6 months

[wine] In The Pink

by Jim L. Ellingson

Just in time for summer, and the Solo Vino rose' tasting. Rosé20 & less Lynne Char Bennett Sunday, May 24, 2009 More... On this holiday weekend, the unofficial start of summer, thoughts turn to chilled, refreshing wines like dry roséThe versatility of a dry pink makes it easy to pair with warm-weather dishes. Rosés often made from red Rhone grape varieties, both single varietals like Syrah and Grenache, and blends. Pinot Noir rosé a favorite - is generally more expensive because of the cost of the fruit. The past few years have seen a rise in the amount of roséroduced. Many wineries seem to take roséore seriously, rather than making it as a by-product of their red wines. More wineries are jumping on the bandwagon as demand increases, so there is plenty of rosén the marketplace now to try. Here are some recommendations, but taste around to find your favorite as a refreshing accompaniment to summer fare. 2008 Angove Nine Vines South Australia Grenache/Shiraz Rosé$13) The Nine Vines brand of Angove, one of Australia's oldest family-owned wine companies, gets its name from the nine vines remaining in its original historic Adelaide vineyard. Bright cherry and spiced raspberry aromas and flavors; shows a bit more body and fruit intensity. Good acidity with hint of plum skin-like tannins on the finish. 70 percent Grenache; 30 Syrah. (Importer: Trinchero Vineyards) 2008 Bonny Doon Vineyard Vin Gris de Cigare California Rosé$15) Santa Cruz-based Randall Grahm, who has produced wine since 1983, put a flying saucer on the label to poke a little fun at the Chateauneuf-du-Pape 1954 decree banning alien spacecraft from landing in vineyards. A slightly spiced, refreshing light quaffer with a hint of astringent bite on the finish. Almost 60 percent Grenache with smaller amounts of Cinsault, Roussanne, Mourvedre, Syrah and Grenache Blanc. 2008 El Coto Rioja Rosado ($12) Since the release of El Coto de Rioja's first bottling in 1975, the Rioja Alta winery - which now owns about 65,000 American oak casks - has become a leading brand in both Spain and Europe. The floral perfumed nose has highlights of red cherry and plum; delicate palate of light strawberry with slight skin tannins on the finish. Made from equal parts Grenache and Tempranillo. (Importer: Frederick Wildman & Sons) 2008 Paul Jaboulet Aî Parallele 45 Cotes du Rhone Rosé$13) Founded in 1834 by Antoine Jaboulet, this winery is still run by the Jaboulet family. The name refers to the 45th latitude of France's Rhone Valley. This dry roséhows strawberry, cherry and red raspberry juice. Very refreshing, with tart cherry and good acidity; an initial hit of tartness segues to a long finish. Contains 50 percent Grenache, 40 Cinsault and 10 Syrah. (Importer: Frederick Wildman & Sons) 2008 Robert Hall Rosée Robles Hall Ranch Paso Robles Rosé$14) Winery founder Robert Hall purchased his first vineyard in 1995 after deciding to settle in Paso Robles. Winemaker/director Don Brady came on board in 2001, and now works with a wide range of grapes, including most Rhone varieties. Medium bodied with red raspberry and cherry aromas and flavors with a hint of tangerine peel, plus enough acidity and stuffing to take on foods like roast pork or a grilled ham and cheese sandwich. A blend of 47 percent Grenache, 41 Syrah and 6 each of Cinsault and Mourvedre. -- To learn more about rosésee the links with this story on sfgate.com/food. http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/05/24/FDOJ17MK0G.DTL This article appeared on page E - 5 of the San Francisco Chronicle -- ------------------------------ * Dr. James Ellingson, jellings(a)me.umn.edu * * University of Minnesota, mobile : 651/645-0753 * * Great Lakes Brewing News, 1569 Laurel Ave., St. Paul, MN 55104 *

16 years, 6 months

[wine] Off Topic, Super Memory

by Jim L. Ellingson

FYI/FYE, An article on Memory for Memorial Day. Short version: Stay in the game. May 22, 2009 Brain Power At the Bridge Table, Clues to a Lucid Old Age By BENEDICT CAREY LAGUNA WOODS, Calif. . The ladies in the card room are playing bridge, and at their age the game is no hobby. It is a way of life, a daily comfort and challenge, the last communal campfire before all goes dark. .We play for blood,. says Ruth Cummins, 92, before taking a sip of Red Bull at a recent game. .It.s what keeps us going,. adds Georgia Scott, 99. .It.s where our closest friends are.. In recent years scientists have become intensely interested in what could be called a super memory club . the fewer than one in 200 of us who, like Ms. Scott and Ms. Cummins, have lived past 90 without a trace of dementia. It is a group that, for the first time, is large enough to provide a glimpse into the lucid brain at the furthest reach of human life, and to help researchers tease apart what, exactly, is essential in preserving mental sharpness to the end. .These are the most successful agers on earth, and they.re only just beginning to teach us what.s important, in their genes, in their routines, in their lives,. said Dr. Claudia Kawas, a neurologist at the University of California, Irvine. .We think, for example, that it.s very important to use your brain, to keep challenging your mind, but all mental activities may not be equal. We.re seeing some evidence that a social component may be crucial.. Laguna Woods, a sprawling retirement community of 20,000 south of Los Angeles, is at the center of the world.s largest decades-long study of health and mental acuity in the elderly. Begun by University of Southern California researchers in 1981 and called the 90+ Study, it has included more than 14,000 people aged 65 and older, and more than 1,000 aged 90 or older. Such studies can take years to bear fruit, and the results of this study are starting to alter the way scientists understand the aging brain. The evidence suggests that people who spend long stretches of their days, three hours and more, engrossed in some mental activities like cards may be at reduced risk of developing dementia. Researchers are trying to tease apart cause from effect: Are they active because they are sharp, or sharp because they are active? The researchers have also demonstrated that the percentage of people with dementia after 90 does not plateau or taper off, as some experts had suspected. It continues to increase, so that for the one in 600 people who make it to 95, nearly 40 percent of the men and 60 percent of the women qualify for a diagnosis of dementia. At the same time, findings from this and other continuing studies of the very old have provided hints that some genes may help people remain lucid even with brains that show all the biological ravages of Alzheimer.s disease. In the 90+ Study here, now a joint project run by U.S.C. and the University of California, Irvine, researchers regularly run genetic tests, test residents. memory, track their activities, take blood samples, and in some cases do postmortem analyses of their brains. Researchers at Irvine maintain a brain bank of more than 100 specimens. To move into the gated village of Laguna Woods, a tidy array of bungalows and condominiums that blends easily into southern Orange County, people must meet several requirements, one of which is that they do not need full-time care. Their minds are sharp when they arrive, whether they are 65 or 95. They begin a new life here. Make new friends. Perhaps connect with new romantic partners. Try new activities, at one of the community.s fitness centers; or new hobbies, in the more than 400 residents. clubs. They are as busy as arriving freshmen at a new campus, with one large difference: they are less interested in the future, or in the past. .We live for the day,. said Dr. Leon Manheimer, a longtime resident who is in his 90s. Yet it is precisely that ability to form new memories of the day, the present, that usually goes first in dementia cases, studies in Laguna Woods and elsewhere have found. The very old who live among their peers know this intimately, and have developed their own expertise, their own laboratory. They diagnose each other, based on careful observation. And they have learned to distinguish among different kinds of memory loss, which are manageable and which ominous. A Seat at the Table Here at Laguna Woods, many residents make such delicate calculations in one place: the bridge table. Contract bridge requires a strong memory. It involves four players, paired off, and each player must read his or her partner.s strategy by closely following what is played. Good players remember every card played and its significance for the team. Forget a card, or fall behind, and it can cost the team . and the social connection . dearly. .When a partner starts to slip, you can.t trust them,. said Julie Davis, 89, a regular player living in Laguna Woods. .That.s what it comes down to. It.s terrible to say it that way, and worse to watch it happen. But other players get very annoyed. You can.t help yourself.. At the Friday afternoon bridge game, Ms. Cummins and Ms. Scott sit with two other players, both women in their 90s. Gossip flows freely between hands, about residents whose talk is bigger than their game, about a 100-year-old man who collapsed and died that week in an exercise class. But the women are all business during play. .What was that you played, a spade was it?. a partner asks Ms. Cummins. .Yes, a spade,. says Ms. Cummins, with some irritation. .It was a spade.. Later, the partner stares uncertainly at the cards on the table. .Is that ... .We played that trick already,. Ms. Cummins says. .You.re a trick behind.. Most regular players at Laguna Woods know of at least one player who, embarrassed by lapses, bowed out of the regular game. .A friend of mine, a very good player, when she thought she couldn.t keep up, she automatically dropped out,. Ms. Cummins said. .That.s usually what happens.. Yet it is part of the tragedy of dementia that, in many cases, the condition quickly robs people of self-awareness. They will not voluntarily abandon the one thing that, perhaps more than any other, defines their daily existence. .And then it.s really tough,. Ms. Davis said. .I mean, what do you do? These are your friends.. Staying in the Game So far, scientists here have found little evidence that diet or exercise affects the risk of dementia in people over 90. But some researchers argue that mental engagement . doing crossword puzzles, reading books . may delay the arrival of symptoms. And social connections, including interaction with friends, may be very important, some suspect. In isolation, a healthy human mind can go blank and quickly become disoriented, psychologists have found. .There is quite a bit of evidence now suggesting that the more people you have contact with, in your own home or outside, the better you do. mentally and physically, Dr. Kawas said. .Interacting with people regularly, even strangers, uses easily as much brain power as doing puzzles, and it wouldn.t surprise me if this is what it.s all about.. And bridge, she added, provides both kinds of stimulation. The unstated rule at Laguna Woods is to support a friend who is slipping, to act as a kind of memory supplement. .We.re all afraid to lose memory; we.re all at risk of that,. said one regular player in her 90s, who asked not to be named. Woody Bowersock, 96, a former school principal, helped a teammate on a swim team at Laguna Woods to race even as dementia stole the man.s ability to form almost any new memory. .You.d have to put him up on the platform just before the race, just walk him over there,. Mr. Bowersock said. .But if the whistle didn.t blow right away, he.d wander off. I tell you, I.d sometimes have to stand there with him until he was in the water. Then he was fine. A very good swimmer. Freestyle.. Bridge is a different kind of challenge, but some residents here swear that the very good players can play by instinct even when their memory is dissolving. .I know a man who.s 95, he is starting with dementia and plays bridge, and he forgets hands,. said Marilyn Ruekberg, who lives in Laguna Woods. .I bring him in as a partner anyway, and by the end we do exceedingly well. I don.t know how he does it, but he has lots of experience in the game.. Scientists suspect that some people with deep experience in a game like bridge may be able to draw on reserves to buffer against memory lapses. But there is not enough evidence one way or the other to know. Ms. Ruekberg said she cared less about that than about her friend: .I just want to give him something more during the day than his four walls.. Drawing the Line In studies of the very old, researchers in California, New York, Boston and elsewhere have found clues to that good fortune. For instance, Dr. Kawas.s group has found that some people who are lucid until the end of a very long life have brains that appear riddled with Alzheimer.s disease. In a study released last month, the researchers report that many of them carry a gene variant called APOE2, which may help them maintain mental sharpness. Dr. Nir Barzilai of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine has found that lucid Ashkenazi Jewish centenarians are three times more likely to carry a gene called CETP, which appears to increase the size and amount of so-called good cholesterol particles, than peers who succumbed to dementia. .We don.t know how this could be protective, but it.s very strongly correlated with good cognitive function at this late age,. Dr. Barzilai said. .And at least it gives us a target for future treatments.. For those in the super-memory club, that future is too far off to be meaningful. What matters most is continued independence. And that means that, at some point, they have to let go of close friends. .The first thing you always want to do is run and help them,. Ms. Davis said. .But after a while you end up asking yourself: .What is my role here? Am I now the caregiver?. You have to decide how far you.ll go, when you have your own life to live.. In this world, as in high school, it is all but impossible to take back an invitation to the party. Some players decide to break up their game, at least for a time, only to reform it with another player. Or, they might suggest that a player drop down a level, from a serious game to a more casual one. No player can stand to hear that. Every day in card rooms around the world, some of them will. .You don.t play with them, period,. Ms. Cummins said. .You.re not cruel. You.re just busy.. The rhythm of bidding and taking tricks, the easy conversation between hands, the daily game . after almost a century, even for the luckiest in the genetic lottery, it finally ends. .People stop playing,. said Norma Koskoff, another regular player here, .and very often when they stop playing, they don.t live much longer.. -- ------------------------------ * Dr. James Ellingson, jellings(a)me.umn.edu * * University of Minnesota, mobile : 651/645-0753 * * Great Lakes Brewing News, 1569 Laurel Ave., St. Paul, MN 55104 *

16 years, 6 months

[wine] any takers?

by Karin Teder

Wouldn't you love a weeklong tour of the Italian countryside, sampling the famous regional cuisines and wines of one of the world's most romantic countries? Sure--now back to reality. If an Italian vacation isn't on your agenda this summer, the next best thing may be *Pazzaluna* <http://www.citypages.com/locations/pazzaluna-urban-trattoria-and-bar-153945>'s "Tour of Italy" wine dinner on Wednesday, June 3. The five-course meal takes diners on a culinary tour of the country, starting in Umbria with prosciutto-wrapped watermelon paired with a Salviano Orvieto Classico Superiore. Next, it's on to salad from Tuscany and a Nozzole Chardonnay. Then to Sicily and a lamb cannelloni with a Feudo Maccari Nero d'Avola-Syrah "ReNoto"; back to Tuscany for herb-roasted strip loin, accompanied by a Cabreo Cabernet-Sangiovese; and finally to Piedmont and a poached peach with cardamom mascarpone, paired with a Michelle Chiarlo Moscato d'Asti "Nivole." Quite a trip for $55. Make your reservations for the 6:30 dinner by calling 651.223.7000.

16 years, 6 months

[wine] Wood Grilling - Don't Fear the Flame, affordable cuts

by Jim L. Ellingson

May 20, 2009 Grilling Over Wood as a Sweaty, Smoky Sport By OLIVER SCHWANER-ALBRIGHT GRILLING over a wood fire is as much a sport as an art . it.s more instinctive than cooking with a gas grill, more nuanced than cooking with charcoal, and more athletic than both. In my experience it.s also more satisfying, and not just when a platter of grilled lamb or a slab of crispy glazed pork belly is brought to the table still smelling of oak and applewood. It.s the theater of building a fire out of split logs, and cooking over it. It.s steaming open clams in a caldron set directly on the flames, or charring fennel on a cast-iron griddle, or lowering a grill over a shallow pile of glowing coals for a steak gently seared to medium-rare. Grilling over hardwood is sweaty, smoky, eye-stinging work, but it.s fun. Every Memorial Day, when I grill in a primitive fire pit made out of stacked rocks, one friend repeats the same awed phrase: .Dude, this is like Argentina.. Not quite. If we were in Argentina, I would draft my friends to help me grill a whole cow, which is one of the recipes in .Seven Fires: Grilling the Argentine Way. (Artisan, 2009) by Francis Mallmann, the chef and owner of Patagonia Sur, the celebrated Buenos Aires restaurant, and Peter Kaminsky, the Brooklyn-based writer. (The first ingredient is .1 medium cow, about 1,400 pounds, butterflied, skin removed..) Not all of the recipes in .Seven Fires. call for a pulley. While some of the dishes are the sort of gonzo cooking sure to be documented, mid-flame, on Twitter (pork leg buried in salt, lamb roasted in a wheelbarrow), most of what.s in this captivating book about cooking over wood is as straightforward as it is appealing. Take the oranges and rosemary sprinkled with sugar and caramelized on a cast-iron skillet. The charred, sugary rosemary is both rough and refined, a gratifying end to a grilled meal. A wide cast-iron griddle, like the ones from Lodge (lodgemfg.com) heats exceptionally well over an open flame. Along with long-handled tongs, fire-resistant gloves, an instant-read thermometer and a broad stainless steel spackle knife from a hardware store (narrower and stronger than most spatulas), it.s one of the basic tools for grilling over wood. But the most essential piece of equipment is an adjustable cast-iron grill. The grill fits into a freestanding bracket, and can be raised well above the flames or lowered until it kisses the coals. Mr. Kaminsky, who has written about food and the outdoors for The New York Times, has a fairly elaborate setup in the yard of his Cobble Hill brownstone. In addition to an adjustable grill, he has two Tuscan grills (like the adjustable grills, these are available at spitjack.com) heavy cast-iron grates on four-inch legs. He also had a local wrought-iron shop fabricate an Argentine infiernillo, which looks like a pair of stacked metal coffee tables and works like an open-air oven: you start a fire under one and on top of the other, and roast food between the two. But to cook Mr. Mallmann.s trademark rib-eye, modestly called .A Perfect Steak,. all you need is medium-high heat, with a grill set about two inches above the embers. I joined Mr. Kaminsky in his backyard, where he explained the technique: patience. The one-and-a-half-inch-thick rib-eye was cooked for nine minutes on one side, then seven minutes on the other, timed on an iPhone. Mr. Kaminsky hardly touched it, rotating it 45 degrees on each side, and flipping it only once. .You want to get that nice crust, so you want it hot, and you don.t want to mess with it,. Mr. Kaminsky said. .The idea is to get it pink all the way through, with none of that well-done gray part around the edge.. IT seemed like a long time to cook a steak, but when he cut it open it was roséed, juicy and delicious. Indeed, it was a perfect steak. And Mr. Kaminsky demonstrated perfect technique. He stacked split pieces of well-seasoned, thoroughly dry oak, and started a fire using some newspaper and fatwood, a resinous pinewood that flames easily. (Pine is fine for starting fires, but because it burns quickly and imparts an acrid flavor it should never be used for cooking.) Mr. Kaminsky used a fireplace shovel and a poker modified so that it looked like a croupier.s rake to gather the hot embers, carefully placing them under the grill, adding more oak to the fire as the wood turned into embers. But at its most basic, grilling over hardwood is campfire cooking. My backyard cooking falls somewhere between Mr. Kaminsky.s control and a campfire.s chaos. I.ll ignite oak and applewood in a fire pit, and while the flames are still burning I.ll heat a griddle for searing vegetables for a salad (sliced fennel, tomato halves and wedges of radicchio all char nicely). Or I.ll put clams, white wine and herbs in a cast iron caldron and set it directly on the burning wood, then toast some bread for a simple appetizer. Once the wood turns into hot embers . between 20 and 30 minutes . it.s ready for grilling. Because a wood fire can be much hotter than what you.ll get from charcoal or gas, you should use canola oil or another neutral-flavored oil with a high smoke point for seasoning the grill and griddle or for brushing meat, fish and vegetables. Olive oil, which breaks down over high heat, can be drizzled on later, for flavor. Wood fire might seem to have a greater environmental impact than charcoal or gas, but it.s not so easily assessed. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, a wood fire emits more gases and particulate matter than clean-burning propane, but it also has a smaller carbon footprint. The E.P.A. does not endorse one form of grilling over another. THAT smoke is a guilty pleasure. It gives so much flavor, it makes most marinades and rubs unnecessary. But a bright and balanced sauce, like the honey-sweetened gremolata in .Seven Fires,. adds a note of sophistication. So does the fresh dried chili oil from Russell Moore, the chef and an owner of Camino, in Oakland, Calif., a restaurant where almost everything is cooked with a wood fire. This time of year Mr. Moore grills asparagus and spring onions, then tops them with a chili oil he makes from mild dried New Mexican chilies, pounded garlic and chopped mint. The result has so much body and flavor it.s more salsa than sauce. Mr. Moore describes it as .a super-rough harissa.. The recipe is really a template . you can use any mild chili, such as chihuacle or mulatto, and any herb . and drizzle it over whatever vegetable looks good that week, from artichokes to new potatoes to escarole to summer chanterelles. .You want all the freshness of the seasons in there, and three strong flavors,. Mr. Moore said. Many of the dishes in Adam Perry Lang.s .Serious Barbecue. (Hyperion, 2009) call for indirect heat . this could become a bible for disciples of the ceramic outdoor cooker known as the Big Green Egg . but some dishes, like his Crisp and Unctuous Pork Belly, do just as well when braised in a conventional oven and finished on the grill. Mr. Lang, the chef and owner of Daisy May.s BBQ in Manhattan, builds flavor whenever possible, and the pork belly calls for a marinade, a bourbon glaze (preferably applied with a bundle of herbs), and a dressing applied directly to the cutting board: you squeeze lemon on the board and add olive oil, chives and pepper, so that the resting slab of pork draws in even more flavor. Mr. Lang suggests serving slices of the belly in a bun with applesauce and mustard, the latest iteration of the pork bun. It.s also good on watercress or arugula, tossed with a sharp dressing. For all the technique he details in the book, when I spoke to Mr. Lang he drove home one point: Never use a spray bottle to douse flares from dripping fat. Instead, he suggests moving the food to a cooler corner of the grill, or stacking meat so that it.s exposed to less heat. .A lot of people fear the flame,. Mr. Lang said. .I tell them: Don.t. Because when you.re cooking on wood the flavor is like nothing else.. Affordable Steaks That Make the Cut By Tony Rosenfeld Special to The Washington Post Wednesday, May 20, 2009 This is the summer for affordable grilling, and that does not mean steak eaters are out of luck. They just need to bone up on cuts that can impress a crowd without straining the budget. There are bargains to be had in the meat case, for $5 to $7 per pound. Affordable cuts of beef tend to fall into three groups: hanger and flatiron steaks, long prized by chefs; flank, flap, tri-tip and skirt steaks, which used to be even cheaper when they were less popular; and gems such as chuck eye, chuck shoulder and top sirloin steaks, which are, for the moment, the least expensive of the lot (less than $5 per pound). One thing they all have in common is their tough texture. They come from well-exercised muscles of the animal, which tend to be the most flavorful. There are other cheap cuts to consider, but they suffer from a lack of beefy flavor or from lots of gristle and bones. Attentive prep work, intense marinades and closely watched grill time can do wonders for the bargain cuts we're focusing on here. First, the marinades: Conventional culinary wisdom holds that these liquid mixtures flavor and tenderize tough cuts. Recently, food scientists have begun to question not only whether marinades tenderize meat, but also just how far the marinades actually are able to infuse flavor. In the face of what science may or may not show, experience and many generations of cooks have proved that a good marinade can dress up ordinary meat. Even if the effect is only skin-deep and non-tenderizing, flavors such as soy-ginger and rosemary-red wine give affordable cuts a richer color and an intense, savory crust. Grilling's the way to go for this kind of beef, and that merely demands organization and attention to detail. Little things make a difference, such as pulling the steaks out of the refrigerator while the grill heats up so the meat is not chilled when it hits the grate. That helps achieve the ultimate goal: steaks cooked to a uniform doneness. When the meat goes straight from the fridge to the grill, it takes longer for its center to reach medium-rare or medium, during which time the outside starts to char and the interior can go gray. The fire itself can guide the grilling process. Create two zones: a hotter one that affords a controlled-sear option and a medium-heat area that will cook, but not burn, the meat. On a gas grill, it's a matter of turning knobs. For a charcoal fire, bank about two-thirds of the coals on one side of the grill and scatter the remaining third on the other side. Before the steaks go on, follow the usual pre-grill protocol: Brush the grates to remove any grime, then grease them, using an oiled wad of paper towels. This two-step drill helps ensure the steaks won't stick to the grate or pick up any off-flavors. Once the meat is onboard, patience is a virtue. For the steaks to release easily and get good grill marks, they need to cook undisturbed for two to three minutes. Once the first side is uniformly browned, flip and cook until done. An instant-read meat thermometer is a smart investment. Patience also guides the final step of the grilling method. Let the meat rest for five to 10 minutes after cooking and before slicing. As Harold McGee explains in "On Food and Cooking" (Scribner, 2004), that cooling period allows the meat to firm up, which, in turn, causes its water-retention capacity to increase. Stated simply, a couple of minutes of cooling helps the steaks hold on to their juices. If you were to get antsy and slice the meat the moment it came off the grill, all of those wonderful juices would run onto the cutting board. That's often the difference between a juicy and a not-so-juicy steak. Marinated, grilled steaks are plenty tasty on their own, but it doesn't take much to throw together a quick sauce to complement such fine work. A tangy caper aioli or chipotle-lime butter would go nicely with steaks treated to the rosemary-red wine marinade, while a mango-grilled red onion chutney or spicy Korean steak sauce would match the profile of steaks that have spent time in the soy-ginger marinade. Check this chart for more information about affordable cuts and for a foolproof method for cooking them. Then head out to the patio, where the classic summer pairing of steaks and the grill is still well within reach. Freelance food writer Tony Rosenfeld is working on a cookbook about high-heat weeknight cooking. -- ------------------------------ * Dr. James Ellingson, jellings(a)me.umn.edu * * University of Minnesota, mobile : 651/645-0753 * * Great Lakes Brewing News, 1569 Laurel Ave., St. Paul, MN 55104 *

16 years, 6 months

[wine] Aussie Gems

by Jim L. Ellingson

FYI/FYE http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/wine/detail?&entry_id=39786 8 undiscovered Australian gems The Chronicle Not many corks in this bunch. As I write in this week's Thirst column, Australians are starting a push to convince us that we need to think of their wines in terms of regionality and terroir. Fair point. The problem is that when you hit the shelves, the major brands have so dominated the Australian story that finding small, distinctive wines has up to now largely been a wonky, courageous and often foolhardy quest. There are a handful of U.S. retailers who have made these wines their business, notably Chuck Hayward at San Francisco's Jug Shop and the Southern Hemisphere Wine Center down in Huntington Beach. These are folks who look beyond the Yellow Tails and the barn-burner Shirazes. Most wine folk have a few obscure Aussie favorites on their mental lists. Mine include Grosset's Polish Hill Riesling and Tahbilk Marsanne, plus a few you'll find below. But many rarely or never see these shores, like Wendouree, a Clare Valley icon unlikely to hit U.S. shelves until ... well, ever. (It's a favorite of sommelier Richard Betts, whose own project is mentioned below.) Here's a handful of Australian wines that make the case for both regionality and nuance. It's an imperfect list -- Margaret River, Great Southern, Tasmania and so on aren't represented. But it's a start. 2008 Jim Barry The Lodge Hill Clare Valley Riesling ($18) It's not entirely fair to call the Clare Valley a cool region; its cumulative heat isn't that far off from the Barossa. Yet it's home to some of Australia's finest Rieslings, including this perennial standout from the Barry family. On the lean, fresh side, even by Clare standards, still glinting bright green. Sharply dry, full of flint and cool stone, it hints of beautiful stone fruit. While not as plush as some years, it's far from austere. A consistent value, so also look for the '07. (Importer: Negociants USA) 2007 Betts & Scholl Eden Valley Riesling ($30) Leave it to two Americans to show off the delicacies of Australian Riesling. In this case, it's master sommelier Richard Betts and art collector Dennis Scholl, whose wine project finds outstanding lots from around the world. A subtly serious Riesling, with an oily character to the stone and petrol notes, plus lilac and citrus zest. Made in partnership with Trevor Jones, known for his Shiraz and Port-style Jonesy wines. (Importer: Betts & Scholl) 2008 Brokenwood Hunter Valley Semillon ($20) Hot, humid Hunter Valley has made its name on light, long-aging Semillon. This popular producer makes a benchmark version with fantastic aging potential. That means, of course, the 2008 is barely out of its shell, really not ready for prime time until somewhere after 2012 or so. At just 10 percent alcohol, it's very light on its feet, with chopped mint and green olive on the nose. More apple skin and a touch of peachy roundness to the taste. Precise and deft. Serve it with white-fleshed fish or greens. Or splurge for the waxy, clover-inflected 2003 ILR Reserve ($48), which receives five years of aging before relase but still has a sharp-eyed edge. (Importer: Old Bridge Cellars) 2007 Hungerford Hill Tumbarumba Chardonnay ($22) An appetizing pick from the chilly and largely unknown Tumbarumba area in New South Wales, located in the Australian Alps. Melon, pear and dry wood notes emerge, with some leesy depth. Somewhat upfront but plenty crisp. Aged in 60 percent new and 40 percent one-year-old French oak. (Importer: J. Pappademas Wines) 2007 Penley Estate Phoenix Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon ($20) On the very eastern edge of South Australia, abutting Victoria, Coonawarra is surprisingly cool for a region that sets a benchmark for Australian Cabernet. Its well-known red clay-limestone soils certainly help. Penley founder Kym Tolley previously spent time at Penfolds with Max Schubert, who pioneered Grange. The Phoenix is a reminder of smoky, leafy, tobacco-driven Cabernet. The gravelly cassis and plum make it subtle -- if a bit more heated (15 percent alcohol) than it might be. Terrific energy. (Importer: Old Bridge Cellars) 2005 Philip Shaw No. 89 Orange Shiraz Viognier ($42) Already mentioned as one of my most memorable wines last year, this is proof of the aromatic potential of Shiraz from the cooler parts of Victoria. The nose pops with bacon, honeysuckle and chamomile, and it's all about taut red fruit, wild blueberry and a racy profile. (Importer: Cumulus Wines) 2006 Ross Estate Single Vineyard Barossa Valley Old Vine Grenache ($22) For this little tour, I promised to stay away from more obvious locales like the Barossa. But it's worth noting that even in a region known for big, there are efforts with more brains than brawn. This Grenache from 96-year-old vines speaks softly. Perfumed and a touch tarry, it's full of plump berries, with a rich but vibrant profile. The structure is subtle, and the fruit is deliciously lifted. (Importer: Southern Starz) 2006 Yering Station Yarra Valley Pinot Noir ($19) Yarra Valley, in Victoria, is ground zero for Australian Pinot Noir, not least because it produces much of the country's better sparkling wines. Wines from this historic property have been rather hard to find on shelves of late, but it shows off the brightness of Yarra fruit, with a tight mineral structure, orange peel highlights and a minty lift. (Importer: Epic Wines) Posted By: Jon BonnéEmail) | May 09 2009 at 09:15 AM -- ------------------------------ * Dr. James Ellingson, jellings(a)me.umn.edu * * University of Minnesota, mobile : 651/645-0753 * * Great Lakes Brewing News, 1569 Laurel Ave., St. Paul, MN 55104 *

16 years, 6 months

[wine] Grillings, pairings, SFGC

by Jim L. Ellingson

If Monday's Memorial, the media must be filled w/ outdoor ideas. Cheers, Jim Wines for grill and barbecue Lynne Char Bennett Sunday, May 17, 2009 More... The wines to match grilled and barbecued food can be as varied as the options of what to cook. Here are a few recommendations, based on the four cooking techniques and recipes elsewhere in this section. Suggested retail prices are less than $30. You can also try less expensive wines with similar character, as well as other varietal suggestions in today's story on Page D1. 2006 Earthquake Zin Lodi Zinfandel ($28) Michael and David Phillips - the sixth generation of family growers since the 1860s - maintain 500 vineyard acres near Lodi. A specialty is old-vine Zinfandel, including the vineyard for this bottling, which was planted about the same time as the 1906 earthquake. This registers at least 7.0 on the Richter scale - with enough power, spice and jammy fruit to conquer most tomato-based barbecue sauces. Blended with a little Petite Sirah and Syrah. 2007 Feudi di San Gregorio Sannio Falanghina ($16) Founded in 1986 and located in Campania's Irpina region, Feudi produces modern-style wines from native grapes. Consulting winemaker Riccardo Cotarella sources these grapes from high-altitude vineyards near Mount Taburno, then ferments in stainless steel with no malolactic fermentation. A meld of stone fruit, pear, golden apple and Meyer lemon; aromatic with more body than expected. The balance and tart, clean finish speaks to both grilled vegetables and shrimp. A Sauvignon Blanc like the 2007 Vina Robles Paso Robles bottling ($14) will also work. 2006 Hess Collection Allomi Vineyard Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon ($25) The Hess Collection had its start in 1978, when Donald Hess purchased his first vineyards on Mount Veeder. Winemaker Dave Guffy oversees the winery's three tiers, which includes the mid-priced Single Vineyard line. Intense nose of dark berry, loam and creme brulee with similar berry, chocolate hints and supple tannins on the palate. A relatively inexpensive Napa Valley Cab that will pair well with grilled meats. 2006 JC Cellars California Cuvee Syrah ($25) A utility infielder, this full-bodied Syrah from winemaker Jeff Cohn has the dark fruit and body to take on grilled meats and most tomato-based sauces, as long as the sauce's chile heat doesn't burn down the barn. Cohn - who began his wine career with Kent Rosenblum at Rosenblum Cellars - left in 2006 to focus on his Oakland winery. This is blended from multiple vineyards and appellations, resulting in a deep, rich California-style Syrah. Ripe aromas and flavors of blackberry, loam and pepper with generous lashings of oak. Includes 21 percent Petite Sirah. 2007 King Estate Winery Domaine Oregon Pinot Gris ($25) Domestic Pinot Gris is generally a weightier style than Pinot Grigio, which makes it a versatile choice with both light and moderately rich foods. Oregon's organically farmed King Estate, founded in 1991 by the King family, produces Pinot Gris on 300 of its 465 acres. Lovely aromas and flavors of citrus, stone fruit and spice underscored with hints of mineral; rather lush mouthfeel. The winery's more available 2007 Signature Collection bottling ($17) is also terrific. Several California producers - including J Wine Company and Edna Valley Vineyard - also make notable Gris. For a lighter white, try a slightly spritzy Vinho Verde with lively acidity, which will act like a squeeze of lemon and enliven grilled shrimp. - Lynne Char Bennett, lbennett(a)sfchronicle.com http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/05/17/FD2117J9CU.DTL This article appeared on page D - 6 of the San Francisco Chronicle Pairing wines with grilling favorites Lynne Char Bennett, Chronicle Staff Writer Sunday, May 17, 2009 More... Next weekend, Memorial Day kicks off the grilling season. It's time for dusty grills and barbecue skills to re-emerge with thoughts of fire and succulent fare. Finding something to grill is usually easy. Choosing a liquid refreshment to take on and enhance the grill's char might need a bit more thought. While summer quenchers like light beer and iced tea are refreshing if you're mowing the lawn or tending a hot grill, I want a more robust adult beverage when I sit down to juicy slices of grilled beef or smoky, finger-licking barbecue. Wine has the intensity, body, aroma and flavor to complement almost anything you can cook over fire. Several factors come into play when choosing bottles that pair well with grilled and barbecued dishes: what type of food; which sauce; the use of smoke; and cooking method. The guidelines for pairing wine are as applicable for summer's casual outdoor fare as for a five-course dinner with a sommelier's selections. Meat's weight and heft require a wine with similar body and intensity, while vegetables' more delicate flavors are better suited to lighter wines. Strong marinades or sauces will modify the equation, as will heavy char or a big dose of smoke. Incorporating the grilled food into another dish like pasta or salad will also complicate its character. These additional interplays can tilt the pairing toward a different wine. Cooking methods - whether including high-heat grilling or lower temperature barbecuing- also affect the wine choices. Traditionalists swear by charcoal or hardwood for both grilling and barbecue, especially for that smoky nuance. More people are using natural gas or propane grills for convenience as well as environmental reasons; there also is an increasing number of electric grills from which to choose. The accompanying recipes and wine pairing tips illustrate how to match wines with some of the season's favorite foods. Today's picks in The Chronicle Recommends on Page D6 should also provide choices. Now all you have to do is hold up your end of the grill. hat to sip & cook Barbecue: The smoky, rich flavors of saucy slow-cooked meats can be challenging to pair, but Zinfandel and Syrah work well. If the sauce is sweet, choose Zins and Syrahs with plenty of fruit. Barbera, Beaujolais, Grenache and rosére contenders, too. Beef: Beef-friendly wines are full-bodied, with dark berry fruit and some tannin with occasional loamy hints. Cabernet Sauvignon and other red Bordeaux, Syrah, Grenache and other red Rhones, and Pinot Noir are all good choices. Fish & seafood: A range of white wines work with grilled seafood, just as with baked or sauteed seafood. Try a citrusy Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, a Manzanilla sherry or dry rosé Vegetables: Grilled vegetables can stand up to full-bodied white wines, dry roséand light reds. Good choices include Chablis, unoaked Chardonnay, Gruner Veltliner, Pinot Gris, dry Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc and dry roséFor reds, go for a light Pinot Noir or Valpolicella. rilling gadgets Charcoal Companion offers a ready-to-use, disposable "Smoke in a Cup" with choice of apple, cherry, mesquite and hickory ($2, Mollie Stone's; companion-group.com) Another choice is Woodbridge Grill, a can with enough chips for approximately 8 grillings. The can includes a magnetic smoker box that attaches to most grills; in apple wood, mesquite and toasted oak. ($11.95, Mollie Stones and Nob Hill; woodbridgegrill.com) When your ribs are to die for, one rack is usually not enough. Barbecue up to six slabs with a rib rack, which evenly smokes without having to turn each one. The nonstick finish cleans up easily - just disassemble the rack then throw it in the dishwasher. ($9.99, Home Depot) Tongs, forks and spatulas are boring compared to the Pig Tail Food Flipper, used by many professionals and serious grillers. Advocates claim it is quicker to turn meat over with a flip of the wrist and doesn't leave holes. Left-handed model also available. Made of surgical stainless steel with a lifetime replacement guarantee. ($12.99, Cost Plus World Market or pigtailff.com) Towels, hot pads and leather gloves have nothing on the 'Ove'Glove, which provides exceptional heat protection and dexterity. Made with Nomex (used by firefighters) and Kevlar (used by police), it protects up to 540 degrees as long as the glove remains dry. Heat-resistant silicone helps grip a sizzling grill grate or add wood chips to red hot coals. ($16.99 per glove, one size fits all; Walgreens, Rite-Aid and oveglove.com. moking tips -- Keep your hand clean by covering it with a plastic bag before filling a chimney with coals. -- Arrange gray-ashed hot charcoal on top of unlit briquettes; they will eventually catch and prolong the heat without opening the lid as often. -- Many charcoal grills don't have a built-in thermometer; stick a meat thermometer in one of the grill lid's vent holes to check the temperature. -- For gas grills, use a small disposable aluminum tray to hold dry wood chips. Place it beneath the cooking grate and directly onto a covered burner. -- Use two pair of tongs if cooking with charcoal - you may need one to move coals around, but designate one pair strictly for food. -- Before placing raw meat on a plate or sheet pan, cover the pan with foil or plastic wrap. Throw away the foil on the still-clean sheet pan, which can then be used for the cooked meat. -- Mix salt and pepper in a small ramekin, then use to season raw meat to avoid possibly contaminating the entire container of salt. -- Use two side-by-side bamboo skewers for kebabs. The small pieces of food won't spin around, so the skewers are easier to turn. egetables Summer grilling and barbecue is not all about meat. In-season vegetables, including asparagus, summer squash and corn, take well to outdoor cooking. They can also headline in a main dish with just a few additions, including the right wine. Vegetable lovers don't need to wallop their palates with wines that pair better with meat than vegetables. Green flavors like those in steamed asparagus are usually paired with white wines offering some grassy, herbal character. A change in cooking method can expand your choices. Grilled vegetables allow you to include fuller-bodied whites, dry rosénd even lighter reds thanks to the caramelization and char from the fire. Light to moderate char is a little bitter (in a good way), accents a vegetable's flavor and makes it more red-wine friendly, especially if the wine has mild tannins. Light smoke from wood chips brings even more nuance to the table, though too much can be overwhelming. For a grilled-vegetable-centric menu, include on your shopping list white wines like Chablis, unoaked Chardonnay, Gruner Veltliner, Pinot Gris, dry Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc and dry roséFor the other color spectrum, consider light Pinot Noir, Valpolicella, and perhaps even Barbera - particularly if portobello mushrooms or eggplant are in the mix. ish and seafood Seafood can sometimes be challenging to grill. Wine pairing is much easier. Getting past grilling issues is straightforward. A very hot grill with a clean, well-oiled grate cooks seafood in a flash and with little sticking. Seafood is done when firm and opaque, though many people prefer a salmon fillet cooked to medium with a somewhat translucent interior. A simple seasoning of extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper allows delicate flavors to shine. If using wood as fuel or to smoke, stick to milder, sweeter types like alder and fruitwoods. Rich, oily fish like salmon are exceptions; they do well with pecan, cedar and light doses of hickory. Pairing wine with the straightforward flavors of grilled seafood is, well, straightforward. Choose wines you might like with similar dishes cooked on the stove or in the oven. A wide range of whites will work, from tart citrusy choices like Sauvignon Blanc that are almost like a squeeze of lemon on shrimp, to medium-bodied bottlings with riper fruit, to Chardonnay. Mineral and briny notes, like those of Manzanilla sherry, also play well with seafood. Subtle smoke will add its character to the food, so you can consider light, dry rosénd light, fruity reds like Pinot Noir - a classic match with salmon. eef Not all cuts of beef are suited to quick cooking over fire. While tender steaks are often thrown onto the grill for a quick but satisfying meal, cuts like brisket and chuck come need slow, cooking at low temperatures to become tender. Tri-tip roastfalls between the two, so it does well with a two-level fire. After a quick high-heat sear, the tri-tip should then be cooked slowly over medium to medium-low heat char until it's medium rare. Santa Maria-style tri-tip, a Central Coast staple, is traditionally cooked over red oak and has straightforward seasonings that include hints of garlic. All cuts of simply seasoned beef, like Santa Maria tri-tip, stand up to hearty red wines. Grilling adds char to the meat, which goes well with red-wine tannins as long as the meat is not totally blackened, in which case your palate can quickly go into tannin overload. Beef-friendly reds are usually full bodied, with dark berry fruit and some tannin with occasional loamy hints. Classic examples include Cabernet Sauvignon and other red Bordeaux varietals. Red Rhone grape varieties like Syrah are also complementary; some - like Grenache - are typically made in a softer, less-tannic style, which is a particularly good match when meat is cooked medium-well to well-done. Terri Stricklin, general manager of Santa Barbara County's original Hitching Post in Casmalia (Hitching Post's Buellton location is famed for its "Sideways" appearance), says the restaurant sells a lot of Pinot Noir with its Santa Maria-style grilled beef, a 2 1/2-inch-thick top sirloin cooked over local red oak. In short, beef simply seasoned and grilled (especially when rare to medium-rare) pairs with the same wines you would order for any steak. arbecue The smoky succulent flavors of barbecue - slow-cooking ribs, brisket, pork shoulder - over indirect heat, aren't necessarily thought of as wine-friendly. When these meats are slow-cooked at temperatures less than 250°, the connective tissue softens and the fat renders, which makes the meat tender and succulent. Rubs and pastes also contribute flavor to the meat, as do sauces and glazes. There are several styles or regional barbecue - Kansas City, Texas and the Carolinas, for example - which have distinct flavors that call for different types of wines. Tomato-based barbecue sauces are the most widespread. Finding wines to complement moderate levels of sweet-tart tomato or ketchup, spices and chile heat is not too difficult when a sauce is well balanced and not too sweet. Both Zinfandel and Syrah are full bodied; many bottlings have intense fruit with soft tannins. Very ripe wines can be high in alcohol, which can exacerbate a sauce's chile heat, though a high level of alcohol in a well-balanced wine is often imperceptible. Sweet sauces need a wine with sufficient fruit; the sweeter the sauce, the sweeter the wine, which is why many big, jammy, low-tannin Zins and Syrahs can work. Barbera, Beaujolais, Grenache and rosére contenders, too. At times, a wine with a hint of residual sugar may be needed; a very dry one may seem coarse and sour after a bite of barbecue. Great barbecue is perhaps the most challenging and technique-driven dish that comes off a grill. It can also bring the most acclaim, especially if served with the perfect wine. ood and smoke No matter the flavor, wood used to grill and smoke food is always hardwood, but fruit wood is becoming the choice of some professional Bay Area barbecuers. Apple is preferred by East Bay pit masters at Bo's Barbecue & Catering, Kinder's Meats-Deli-BBQ, and Looney's Smokehouse, while BarbersQ in Napa uses cherry. San Francisco's Big Nate's BBQ and Memphis Minnnie's choose white oak. Uncle Frank's BBQ Restaurant & Catering in South Bay incorporates wood from oak, fruit and occasionally almond trees. Lazzari Fuel Co. in Brisbane offers a selection of woods; they're available in many Bay Area markets and hardware stores or directly from Lazzari' Fuel Co., 11 Industrial Way, Brisbane; (415) 467-2970 or lazzari.com. pple, cherry Smoke characteristics: Subtle, sweet, fruity Suggested uses: Pork, poultry, fish, vegetables How sold: Chips, chunks, logs aple Smoke characteristics: Mild, clean Suggested uses: Commercial smoking How sold: Sawdust lder Smoke characteristics: mild, clean Suggested uses: Seafood, richer fish (salmon), poultry, pork How sold: Chips ecan Smoke characteristics: Mild to moderate intensity, slightly sweet Suggested uses: Good all-around How sold: Chunks, logs ak Smoke characteristics: Classic smokiness, well-rounded Suggested uses: Pork, beef, game, lamb, poultry - very versatile How sold: Chips, chunks, oak charcoal. White oak more available in Bay Area; red oak along Central Coast ickory Smoke characteristics: Moderately intense, rich Suggested uses: Beef, lamb, pork; sawdust for commercial smoking of sausage and fish How sold: Sawdust, chips, chunks, logs esquite Smoke characteristics: Intense, assertive Suggested uses: beef, lamb How sold: Chips, chunks, logs arbecued pork ribs Serves 3-4 This recipe is adapted from Pat Burke, director of hospitality for Judd's Hill Winery in Napa Valley. Since making this recipe can be an all-day process, you can make it partly ahead: smoke the ribs a day in advance, refrigerate them overnight, and finish cooking in the oven on the day you'll serve them. Remove them from the refrigerator an hour before putting them in the oven. 1 rack pork spareribs or baby back ribs (see Note) 2 to 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil 4 to 5 tablespoons low-salt purchased rub (less for the smaller baby backs), or as needed (see Note) 1 to 2 cups wood chips, or 3 to 4 wood chunks 1 cup of your favorite barbecue sauce or Spicy Rib Glaze (see recipe) + more as needed (see Note) To prepare: If necessary, remove the thin, translucent membrane from the back or bone side of the ribs. Lightly coat ribs with extra virgin olive oil. Apply a generous coating of dry rub. Place ribs in a self-sealing plastic bag and refrigerate at least 2 hours or up to one day in advance. Remove ribs from refrigerator one hour before cooking. To smoke: If using wood chips, soak in water for at least 25 minutes. Use charcoal briquettes to fill a large chimney about half-full (about 50 briquettes for a Weber kettle grill). Ignite coals with one to two pieces of newspaper placed beneath the chimney. When all coals are covered with gray ash (about 15-30 minutes) place a disposable aluminum tray filled with about 1/2 inch hot water on one side of the grate. Arrange coals on the other side of the grill, and top with the drained soaked wood chips or 2 wood chunks. Put grate into place. Close lid and allow heat to build up. Wipe the grate with a thin coating of oil, using an oiled paper towel held with cooking tongs. Arrange ribs on grate, meat side up, with thicker side closer to the coals. Cover. Keep temperature ideally around 210°-220° for 2 1/2 hours by adjusting bottom and lid vent openings. Add more coal and wood chips as needed to maintain temperature. To finish: Preheat oven to 225°-230°, and put the oven rack in the middle position. Line a sheet pan with one length of heavy-duty aluminum foil large enough to enclose the ribs (with regular-weight foil, use double thickness). Take ribs off the grill and place on foil-lined pan; baste all sides of ribs with sauce or glaze. With the ribs bone side up, fold foil edges of foil over and crimp to seal. Bake 3 hours. Carefully remove foil 45 minutes prior to serving. Move ribs (which at this point may be so tender they may fall apart) to a flat rack set on a foil-lined sheet pan. Reserve meat juices in the unwrapped foil. Baste sauce onto both sides of ribs, leaving the bone side up. Place back into the oven or onto the grill for 30-45 minutes. This additional finish time will "tighten" the meat so the ribs are pull-apart - not fall-apart- tender. To serve: Cut the ribs apart, arrange on a platter, and brush with pan juices and/or barbecue sauce. Reserved juices and sauce can also be offered on the side. Note: An untrimmed rack of spareribs can weigh an impressive 5 to 6 pounds. You can remove the small triangular end (the point) and the inside flap of meat (the skirt) and save for another use. A trimmed sparerib rack weighs 3 to 4 pounds and will feed 3-4. One rack of baby backs will feed about 2 people. Use a rub of your choice or the very good Pappy's 50% Less Salt. You can also use your preferred sauce or glaze. Three locally produced sauces - Everett & Jones Medium, Kinder's Mild BBQ Sauce and Looney's Smokehouse Texas Spicy (from Looney's restaurant in Berkeley) - are excellent choices. The calories and other nutrients absorbed from marinades and rubs vary and are difficult to estimate. Therefore, this recipe contains no analysis. Wine pairing: Fruity, full-bodied reds are the way to go for slightly sweet, tomato-based barbecue with a touch of heat. Lower tannin Syrah/Shiraz, Zinfandel and Grenache/Garnacha will work well; try the 2006 JC Cellars California Cuvee Syrah ($25). See Page D6 for more details. picy rib glaze Makes about 1 cup This glaze is an adaption of recipe Pat Burke adapted from a friend who is also a barbecue competitor. 1/4 cup ketchup 1/4 cup hoisin sauce 1/4 cup Crystal brand hot sauce 2 tablespoons lemon juice 2 tablespoons brown sugar 2 cloves garlic, minced 1 teaspoon habanero sauce, or to taste 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice -- Liquid smoke to taste Instructions: Combine ingredients in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil and simmer for 20 minutes to thicken. Use immediately or cool and refrigerate up to 3 days. rilled tri-tip Serves 4 to 6 Serve tri-tip Santa Maria style: grilled over red oak, then accompanied with salsa, pinquito beans, a simple green salad and toasted French rolls or bread. Leftovers make terrific sandwiches. 1 tablespoon garlic granules or powder (see Note) 2 teaspoons kosher salt 1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper 1 teaspoon sweet paprika -- Olive oil as needed 1 trimmed beef tri-tip roast with a thin layer of fat (about 2 pounds) 1/4 cup strong, flavorful red wine vinegar (for basting) 2 cups wood chips or some wood chunks Instructions: Combine garlic granules, salt, pepper and paprika. Lightly coat tri-tip with oil, then cover with dry rub. Marinate at room temperature at least 1 1/2 hours before grilling, or cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. Bring to room temperature 1 hour before grilling. For charcoal grill: Soak about 2 cups of wood chips in water for at least 25 minutes. Prepare a grill with charcoal briquets. Let coals burn down until covered with ash. Arrange most of the coals on one side of the grill and the remaining coals on the other side so that half the grill will be hot and the other half will be medium-low heat. Drain wood chips and spread half atop the hot side of the coals after cleaning the grill (instructions below). Alternately, add a couple of wood chunks to the coals. For gas grill: If using, set up wood chips for smoking and place below grill grate. Adjust burners for two heat levels - high and medium-low. For both: After preheating, clean grate then wipe with well-oiled paper towel held in tongs. Lightly coat meat with oil; gently place meat fat side down on the hot side of the grill. Sear until dark brown, about 2-3 minutes (you may need to move meat away from significant flareups or hit flame with spritz of water). Flip meat over to sear the opposite side, then it move to the cooler area of the grill. Baste once with vinegar. Cover. A bit later, baste at least once more. Halfway through cooking, turn the meat over (leaving it in the cooler area) and baste. Cover and continue to cook, basting once more a few minutes before the roast is done (the internal temperature should read 125° for rare; 130° for medium-rare on an instant-read thermometer). Total cooking time is about 25 minutes, depending on the heat and the thickness of the meat. Cover loosely with foil and let rest for at least 15 minutes before carving across the grain into thin, 1/8- to 1/4-inch-thick slices. Note: For a rub using fresh garlic instead of powdered, blend 1/4 cup chopped garlic, 1 large chopped shallot and 1 1/2 to 2 teaspoons kosher salt into a paste. Stir in 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper. Before grilling, wipe off rub, then re-season with salt and pepper to taste. The calories and other nutrients absorbed from dry rubs are difficult to estimate. Variables include the type of food, marinating time and amount of surface area. Therefore, this recipe contains no analysis. Wine pairing: Grilled meat is a classic for red wine with some tannin, which is moderated by the char and meat proteins. Cabernet Sauvignon, other red Bordeaux and Rhone varietals are no-brainers. The 2006 Hess Collection Allomi Vineyard Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon ($25) is just one example. See Page D6 for details. rilled shrimp & tomatoes Serves 4-6 Grilled shrimp can be a before-dinner nibble or used in in pasta and salad. 2 teaspoons minced garlic, or to taste 1 teaspoon kosher salt + more as needed 6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil + more as needed 1 pound shrimp, extra-large (26/30 per pound) to jumbo (21/25 per pound), deveined, peeled, tail-on -- Cherry tomatoes, about 1 to 2 pints -- Freshly ground pepper -- Lemon wedges -- Chopped parsley or snipped chives (optional) Instructions: Soak 10-inch-long bamboo skewers in water for at least 15 minutes, or use metal skewers if you have them. Using a mortar and pestle, blend garlic and salt into a paste, then mix in 6 tablespoons olive oil. Combine shrimp and garlic mixture and refrigerate at least 30 minutes. Prepare grill for high heat. Thread alternating tomato and shrimp onto skewers. Use two parallel skewers to keep ingredients from spinning. Lightly season shrimp and tomatoes to taste with salt and pepper. Grill approximately 4-6 minutes, turning once, until shrimp are firm and opaque; they will continue cooking after being removed from the heat. Add a squeeze of lemon juice, then garnish with parsley or chives if desired. Nutritional analysis not possible due to the general nature of the recipe. Wine pairing: An unoaked or lightly oaked white with moderate body, or a very tart, lighter-weight one will work. An Oregon Pinot Gris like the 2007 King Estate Winery Signature Collection Oregon Pinot Gris ($17) is a nice blend of both. See Page D6 for details. rilled vegetables Any combination of vegetables can easily be grilled ahead and served at room temperature, or you can grill them while your meat rests. Serve the vegetables on a platter with Saffron Aioli Dressing on the side, or add the chopped grilled vegetables to pasta, farro or rice for a substantial meatless dish. Easier yet: brush pita halves with oil, warm on the grill then stuff with vegetables and a drizzle of dressing. -- Choice of vegetables (see Note) -- Extra virgin olive oil as needed -- Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper -- Saffron Aioli Dressing (see recipe) Instructions: Preheat grill to medium to medium-high heat, then clean grate. Slice vegetables to maximize surface area and minimize the number of pieces (for example, slice zucchini in half lengthwise, eggplant into 1/2- to 3/4-inch rounds, potatoes lengthwise). Brush vegetables with oil or roll in a small pan containing a thin layer of oil; season with salt and pepper to taste. Just before cooking, lightly oil grate with paper towel held with tongs. Place denser vegetables on the grill first since they will take longer to cook. Turn vegetables over and move around over any hot spots for more even cooking. Vegetables are done when browned to your liking and the texture ranges from soft to slightly al dente. Cooking time will vary depending on the heat of the grill. Note: Good choices to grill include asparagus, corn, whole carrots, eggplant, fennel, leeks, red or spring onion, portobello mushrooms, red bell pepper, yellow crookneck squash, zucchini and medium-sized Yukon gold potatoes. After cooking, brush the still-warm vegetables with different vinaigrettes if you like. Nutritional analysis not possible due to the general nature of the recipe. Wine pairing: Vegetables vary so widely that it can be challenging to chose a wine to go with a mixed serving. Grilling adds a bit of char, which levels the playing field somewhat as long as the wine doesn't fight with the vegetable flavors or the char. Try the versatile 2007 Feudi di San Gregorio Sannio Campania Falanghina Bianco ($16). See Page D6 for details. affron aioli dressing Makes approximately 1/4 cup This can be made a day ahead. -- Pinch saffron threads, crumbled 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice 1/4 teaspoon finely minced or pressed garlic (see Note) 1/4 cup prepared mayonnaise 1 tablespoon rice vinegar Instructions: Place saffron threads in a small bowl, or in the base of a mortar and pestle. Add 1/4 teaspoon lemon juice and steep a minute or two to extract the saffron's color and flavor. Add garlic and, if using a pestle, blend into a paste. Combine thoroughly with the mayonnaise. Taste and adjust seasoning. Per tablespoon: 100 calories, 0 g protein, 0 g carbohydrate, 11 g fat (2 g saturated), 10 mg cholesterol, 75 mg sodium, 0 g fiber. E-mail Lynne Char Bennett at lbennett(a)sfchronicle.com. http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/05/17/FD8L17FFFS.DTL This article appeared on page D - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle © 2009 Hearst Communications Inc. | Privacy Policy | Feedback | RSS Feeds | FAQ | Site Index | Contact:: -- ------------------------------ * Dr. James Ellingson, jellings(a)me.umn.edu * * University of Minnesota, mobile : 651/645-0753 * * Great Lakes Brewing News, 1569 Laurel Ave., St. Paul, MN 55104 *

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